


I Like to Keep Some Things to Myself

by evrybodysdarlin



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: M/M, Overprotective Mako, Showers, Teasing, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Wuko Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 13:57:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4831607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evrybodysdarlin/pseuds/evrybodysdarlin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Wu is almost kidnapped by Kuvira, Mako is cautious about him.  A little too cautious.  So cautious that he follows him everywhere and sleeps in his room. But Wu seems surprisingly okay with that...</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Like to Keep Some Things to Myself

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Wuko Day--September 19, 2015
> 
> Unbeta-ed and rushed so that I could finish it today!

The night after Kuvira’s almost-successful kidnapping attempt, Mako agreed to stay at the Sato estate with his family and Wu. Wu was given the biggest room, and Mako was given one down the hall. He followed Wu into his room out of habit, though, to see him get settled in. Plus, he didn’t really want to leave Wu alone after all that had happened.

Wu seemed a little quiet. Wu’s version of quiet was still a little more talkative than Mako’s version of loud and outgoing, but Mako could tell a difference. Wu kind of puttered around his room nervously for a bit, hanging scattered clothes up, stacking the books by his bed neatly, just generally unpacking and doing more cleaning than Mako had ever seen him do at one time before. His futzing around eventually petered out, and he wound up stopped awkwardly in front of Mako.

“Hey, buddy?” 

“Yeah?” Mako surprised himself by not feeling the usual urge to roll his eyes that he got when Wu called him one of his affectionate names.

“Thanks again for saving me today. I was really scared.”

“I know. I didn’t really do much. Korra is the one who figured out where you were.”

“It was pretty cool being rescued by the Avatar. Even though she threw me like a sack of cabbages. But I knew you were the one looking for me. I knew you’d come find me.”

Mako’s stomach churned. “I was the one who lost you. I didn’t watch you pee and you got kidnapped!”

(He didn’t actually watch Wu pee, okay? He more accompanied him into the bathroom and then turned his back. It was more like he listened to him pee. Wait, that was still weird, wasn’t it?)

“It’s okay. You couldn’t have known it would happen this time.”

“It’s my job to know stuff like that, Wu. Honestly, you should be pissed off at me. Maybe you should even have another bodyguard.” Mako felt annoyed at himself as soon as he spoke the words. He wasn’t feeling great about his own bodyguard skills right now, but that didn’t mean that he trusted anyone else to do a better job. 

“No way, Mako. You’re my big tough guy, right? I know you’ll keep me safe. I’m going to go take a shower, okay?”

“Okay.” Wu went around a little more, gathering up his clothes and toiletry bag, and wandered into the bathroom. A few moments later, Mako heard the water turn on, shortly followed by Wu singing.

He was singing so enthusiastically that Mako could make out the words through the door. “Oh, I wish I could shimmy like my sister, Kate!” Wu crooned. “My mama wanted to know last night, what makes the boys think Kate’s so nice…”

Mako found himself grinning at the lyrics. Wu’s shower serenades were pretty entertaining, although he’d never add to Wu’s unfounded ego about his singing voice by admitting it. 

Then, it suddenly hit him. _He wouldn’t be singing._ If Kuvira’s plot had succeeded, if Wu had been taken and they hadn’t gotten him back, he wouldn’t be in the shower singing. He wouldn’t be there at all. Mako wouldn’t hear his voice mixing with the water, ever again. The thought made him physically sick for a moment.

“She shimmies like a jelly on a plate!” Wu warbled.

The ludicrous lyrics continued for a few minutes, but then Wu fell strangely silent. Mako’s heart started pounding a little. He told himself he was being ridiculous. Wu was in no danger in the suite bathroom. There wasn’t even any way for someone to get in…wait, yes, there was. There was a stained glass window. He hadn’t thought about it before, since the bedroom was three stories up, but a good bender could easily reach something of that height, especially a metal bender with cables. They could get over the wall to the Sato estate, too. How had Mako not thought of that before? He guessed he just hadn’t thought it was much of a risk. Now he knew better than to assume.

Wu was still quiet. Not even any humming, as far as he could hear. Not even the sound of him dropping his shampoo bottle the way he did every damn day.

Mako waited for about another minute, then went and pounded on the door. “Wu!”

He didn’t hear any response. He tried the door and it wasn’t locked, so he pushed it open.

“Hey! Mako! What are you doing?” Wu’s head popped out from behind the brocade shower curtain, looking shocked, and also looking quite different than usual because his hair was partly frizzy, partly soaked flat by the water.

“You weren’t singing!” The words sounded absurd as soon as they came out.

“I was exfoliating my face! If I sing while I’m scrubbing my face, I’ll swallow water. Duh, Mako!” Wu wobbled his head sarcastically and water droplets flew off his mop of hair.

“I was just making sure you were okay,” Mako said weakly.”

“I appreciate the thought, but what could happen to me in here?”

“I’ve been thinking about that window.”

“The window? Mako, we’re three stories up and behind a wall!” Wu’s head was still protruding from the shower, the curtain pulled tight under his neck to keep the water from escaping.

“Any accomplished bender could find a way to get in, easily.”

“Do you really think Kuvira’s still after me right now?”

“Yes! She never gives up, Wu.”

“I guess I’m glad you’re looking out for me, then. Now, can I finish my shower?”

“Here, I’ll just…turn around.”

“You’re staying in here?”

“The window!” Mako could tell he was being a bit ridiculous, but he couldn’t get the image of metal benders busting through the window out of his mind.

“Okay, fine.” Wu sounded strangely okay with it. “I’ll be a few minutes. I still need to condition.”

“What does that even mean?”

“My hair! And don’t think I didn’t see you smirking at it…I don’t appreciate that! You should feel privileged that you even saw my hair in its natural state.”

Mako snorted. “Privileged…yeah, right.”

“Hmmph!”

The splashing and scrubbing noises went on for a few more minutes. Wu had switched from singing to whistling.

“Okay, coming out! Avert your virgin eyes!” Wu loudly warned as Mako heard the shower curtain swish aside.

“My virgin…Wu!” He was about to argue about the virginity status of his eyes, but then he realized that he just didn’t want to get into that discussion with Wu. (Wait, did that mean that Wu’s eyes _weren’t_ virgin?)

“Okay, you’re safe to turn around now. I’m moisturizing.”

Mako hesitantly turned around and saw Wu now wearing a plush towel firmly wrapped around his waist. He was leaning over the countertop to look in the mirror as he rubbed some thick cream onto his face.

“What’s that stuff?” Mako asked.

“Extract of seaweed and moon flower.” Wu vigorously rubbed the cream across his forehead, then opened up a different jar of lotion and began applying it to his arms.

“Is all of that really necessary?” Mako asked, getting a bit impatient. He felt stupid enough standing in here.

“Yes, it is. When we’re old men and you look all wrinkled like a prune and I look gorgeous, you’ll see!”

Mako’s first impulse was to say that he would _not_ be a wrinkled prune and that firebenders aged gloriously. His second was to ask Wu what made him think that they would still know each other as old men, anyway. But that would be kind of mean, wouldn’t it? The recent events had made him realize that he wasn’t quite as indifferent to Wu as he had thought, and if he wouldn’t say something like that to his few other friends, he shouldn’t say it to Wu.

“If you say so, Wu.”

Wu was still lotioning. He had moved on from his arms to his abdomen. Mako silently noted with amusement that Wu had a little patch of hair in the middle of his chest. He hadn’t expected that. Wu still seemed like such a kid to him, even though he was almost nineteen.

Mako felt his face heat as he realized he was basically standing there watching Wu rub himself down, but Wu seemed oblivious. He was rubbing the lotion onto his flat stomach. His waist was as slim as some girls’, his hipbones flaring out just a little below.

“I don’t suppose you’d help me rub the lotion on my back?” Wu asked, smiling cheekily over his shoulder.

“Um, no,” Mako replied, a little too quickly.

“Too bad!” Wu began contorting himself to try to reach his own shoulder blades with his hands, arching his back, and Mako turned his eyes away.

“Now, to deal with my hair!” Wu exclaimed. He grabbed a little comb off of the counter and parted his locks carefully, sticking his tongue out in concentration as he did. Then he opened a jar of pomade and began to smooth his hair down, working it forward into its usual curl upon his forehead. “Now you know why I take so much time on my hair! It’s crazy. You’re lucky to have straight hair.”

“Yeah, but mine sticks straight up if I don’t put pomade in it in the mornings.” Mako didn’t add that he had just let his hair run amok for most of his life before he decided that it wasn’t a professional look for a cop and had learned how to slick it down.

“It looks good the way you have it, though.” Wu was still running his fingers through his hair, adding height to the front. “I need to let it dry a little before I lie down. Look away again, buddy, unless you want quite a view.”

Mako bit his tongue to keep from blurting out _Of course I don’t want a view_! He wheeled around sharply and heard the rustle of Wu dressing behind him. Then Wu cheerfully pushed past him out into the bedroom, dressed in his sleeveless undershirt and silky boxer shorts. (Did that guy own anything that wasn’t green?)

“I was thinking I should stay in your room tonight,” Mako blurted out. “I mean…this room has a window, too. A really big window.” It could fit even more metal benders through. 

“Okay.” Wu smiled, peachily agreeable as he almost always was until you crossed him. The coronation was the only time Mako had ever seen him unhappy.

“I can sleep on the floor,” Mako added awkwardly.

“Nonsense, Mako! The bed is huge. We can just share.”

The “bad idea” alarm blared in Mako’s head. “Oh, no, it’s fine, the floor is fine.”

“Mako, this bed could fit four people. Just sleep on the other side of it!”

“No, really…”

“Mako, I insist!”

Mako was feeling a little too dazed to face an argument with Wu, who could be incredibly stubborn, so he gave in. “I guess I can sleep on top of the covers. Way over there.”

“Lovely.” Wu plopped down onto the edge of the bed and grabbed the book he had been reading, clearly settling in to relax for a few minutes before bed. 

Mako sat down anxiously on the far side of the bed, which really was huge. He could see Wu’s profile from there, his prominent nose, his enormous green eyes. He looked totally peaceful and composed. Why did Mako feel like he was playing with dynamite?

*~*~*~

It took Mako a long time to get to sleep that night, but he slept surprisingly well once he was out. It turns out that ridiculously expensive king-sized beds really did live up to the hype.

When he woke up, he was relieved to see that both of them had stayed on their own sides of the bed. He’d had a humiliating mental image of waking up wrapped around Wu, like an octopus.

The only task on the agenda that day was reporting all about the kidnapping attempt to Chief Beifong. Mako was _not_ looking forward to that. Having to admit a failure of such massive scale…he wouldn’t be surprised if Beifong took him off Wu duty. He found the thought just as awful as he had the previous day. Imagining Beifong putting someone else in charge of Wu made him feel about ready to shoot fire out of his palms, honestly. 

When Wu woke up and headed to the bathroom, Mako followed him. 

“Oh, you’re watching me pee here now, too?” Wu asked, sounding quite casual about it.

“Not watching! Just, like, listening…standing guard…you know what I’m saying.”

“Whatever stokes your fire, buddy.” Wu reached for the front of his boxers, and Mako quickly reeled around.

“You peeing does not stoke my fire, Wu!” he angrily told the wall across from him. “I’m trying to be conscientious.”

“Doesn’t bother me,” Wu said cheerfully. Mako heard him turn on the sink and turned back around, glaring into Wu’s placid face. 

“There are no fires being stoked. Just doing my job.” Mako stormed out and waited for Wu to follow him.

They got to police headquarters later than planned, of course, because Wu insisted on fixing his pompadour just right.

Beifong acted like her usual stoic self as she greeted them, no more caustic than usual. She made Mako write up his statement of what had happened, including every detail he could remember, while she interviewed Wu and typed up his recollections herself. 

It wasn’t until Wu was out in the lobby and Mako was alone in her office that the steel came out.

“So, you almost let the Earth King be delivered to Kuvira via railway, huh?” Beifong said as Mako sat down across from her desk.

“Yes. I’m so sorry, Chief. I understand if you want to put someone else to guard Prince Wu…but I really think that I could still…"

“Forget it, Mako. I’m not going to get anybody else. I can tell you won’t let it happen again. You look as guilty as a kicked dog. And I saw you follow him into the bathroom on the way in.”

Mako could feel his face heating. “I’m being thorough.”

“He has you on the run.” There was a little chuckle in Beifong’s voice.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mako asked defensively.

“Hmmph, men!” she exclaimed in quiet exasperation. “You’ll see soon enough. Now, out of my office.”

With that ominous warning, Mako fled, in a rush to make sure that Wu was still seated safely in the police station lobby.

*~*~*~

Later that afternoon, Wu rebelled and refused to let Mako follow him into the bathroom in the suite.

“No! Out!” Wu ordered. He stood up as tall as his scrawny frame allowed and barred the door with his body.

“But Wu…”

“But, nothing! Out!”

“But why?”

Wu sighed dramatically. “Because, if you must know, I have to go to the bathroom!”

“You’ve been going to the bathroom with me!” Mako realized with embarrassment that they were almost shouting.

“No, like, _go_ to the bathroom!” Wu added.

“What? Oh…” 

“Yeah, oh! And I would rather be kidnapped and killed by Kuvira supporters than have you in there while I’m…taking care of business on the royal throne!”

Mako laughed, and Wu gave him the evil eye and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

No metalbenders disturbed him. At least not this time.

*~*~*~

Wu took a long shower that night. Was it possible that he was conditioning even more than the night before? How much product could his hair really need? Mako was leaning against the expensively wallpapered wall, idly producing a flame in his hand and then snuffing it out.

Suddenly, the water began to trickle more slowly, and the curtain swished open, giving Mako an excellent view of a completely naked Wu, angled mostly toward the back of the shower as he turned off the water.

“Wu!” Mako spun around so fast that he made himself dizzy, but not fast enough to get the image out of his mind. He almost scorched himself with his own flame.

“What? Who cares? If you’re going to hang out in here every night, I’m not going to skulk around all the time. Just pretend you’re in a locker room or something manly like that,” Wu said nonchalantly.

Being in a ritzy bathroom all alone with a single naked guy was nothing like being in a crowded, smelly public locker room.

(And had anyone Mako had ever seen in a locker room had such a cute little butt like that, like two round halves of a melon? No, not going there…wiping it from his memory…)

“I have my towel on now, you big prude.”

Mako let out a huff of annoyance as he turned back around. “Warn a guy, would you?”

“You’re kind of making a big deal out of this.” Oh, geez, Wu was lotioning again, rubbing it all over his delicate collarbone, up his throat. Not even the wet, frizzy hair could make that unattractive. 

“I’m going out. You can fight off Kuvira herself if she comes in here!” Mako stormed out and heard Wu chuckle behind him. Ugh!

“You’re being really sensitive about this, Mako! But fine, if you want to leave me alone in peril, go ahead!” Wu started whistling to himself as Mako slammed the door.

Wu must be trying to scare Mako off, right? Trying to force Mako to give him some privacy. He could have just said! But he was being an idiot, anyway. Mako was just trying to protect him. He was starting to realize that anywhere could be dangerous for Wu, anywhere, even if he was right outside the door. Anywhere. He hated it. And Wu was such a little fool.

Mako pretended to be already asleep when Wu came out. He was stretched out stubbornly on the floor. He ignored Wu’s quiet laugh as he saw him lying on the carpet. Sleeping on the floor was good for your back, anyway.

*~*~*~

The next day was a typical Wu day—full of mindless entertainment. The only difference from their many days spent together before the kidnapping attempt was that Wu stayed inside the walls of the Sato estate, swimming in the pool and drinking Grandma Yin's lemonade instead of going out shopping.

Mako was tired and crabby from a horrible night’s sleep, annoyed at dealing with the task of staying at Wu’s side as he went about his inane amusements. The floor had been even less comfortable than he’d expected, and he’d been unable to close his eyes without getting flashes of Wu oiling himself up or the cute little dimples above Wu’s backside that Mako had just barely glimpsed. Just barely.

Wu acted as chipper as ever while they were out in the main estate in front of Mako’s family, chattering to Mako, making small talk with everyone around …sometimes Mako could swear he saw Wu giving him a funny look, though. A sideways, cautious look out of his big green eyes. He was probably afraid of Mako’s stormy mood.

Mako still accompanied him into bathrooms that day, but there was no banter this time, not even from Wu.

By that night, Mako felt like their room (no, not their room, just Wu’s) was a pot of hot water ready to boil over, pent up under a lid. Wu was strangely quiet, and Mako could tell that he himself was being a silent, glowering jerk. Wu gathered up his clothes and went into the bathroom for a shower alone without commentary. Mako flinched as he heard the water turn on.

Finally by himself, he was forced to face his own thoughts. Why was he so angry, anyway? What had Wu really done that was so bad? So he had been naked, so what? Wu was right that it was no worse than a locker room, and that Mako had started this arrangement in the first place. So why did it bother him so much? He couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Wu was singing in the shower, something about “How come you do me like you do?” that devolved into a chorus of “doo, doo, doo” as the water splashed.

The shower eventually shut off, quicker than usual, at least by Mako’s judgment. He heard the shower curtain opening, heard Wu rustling around.

“Mako! Mako!” Wu suddenly called loudly. Mako’s heart jumped in his chest. Was something wrong? Was the bathroom actually as dangerous as he had feared? He shoved the door open and ran into the tiled room.

Wu was standing in front of the mirror, towel around his waist, a jar of lotion in his hands, alone and completely unharmed. He turned his head slowly toward Mako and smiled, his green eyes enormous and catlike, gleaming as he spoke. “Will you do my back?” He held the lotion out and grinned.

Mako let out a huff of frustration and grabbed the jar from Wu’s hands, dropping it carelessly onto the marble counter. “Wu! You…I…come here!” He grabbed Wu around his naked waist and pulled him close, into his arms. He let his hands run up and down that back, feeling skin even softer than he had imagined as he kissed Wu’s smirking mouth. Wu let out a happy little hum and kissed back, opening his lips under Mako’s, throwing his bare arms around Mako’s neck.

“Was this what you wanted?” Mako asked angrily as he finally broke the kiss. His hands were still lingering, at Wu’s towel and longing to creep lower, feeling the tiny divots of those dimples.

“Mako, _yes_!” Wu pulled him into another kiss. “Just what do you think I’ve always wanted?”

“Always?” Mako’s mind flashed backed to their first meeting, their many days as bodyguard and client, and he felt a little twinge of guilt. Was he really making out with someone he was supposed to be providing police protection?

“Always, always. And you want it, too.” 

Mako couldn’t really argue when his tongue was busy tracing Wu’s collarbone. When he’d spent all the night before dreaming about Wu, and all day trying not to think about him. When he’d been more shaken up than he ever had in his whole life just because he’d thought he had lost that silly, foolish prince that he adored. 

“How about you get some lotion on those hands if you’re just going to leave them there?” Wu said saucily, wriggling in Mako’s grip. He shimmied like a jelly on a plate. “And go a little lower.”

The towel hit the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> The songs Wu sings in the shower are real jazz songs from the 1920's and you can look them up!
> 
> The title is a quote from "Shake It Out" by Florence and the Machine. 
> 
> Wu having frizzy curls is a headcanon I got from OurImpavidHeroine's work! And probably some others that I just can't think of as well. :)


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